Former PM burnishes his conservationist credentials – but says opposition measures risk damaging the economy. Follow all the updates, live
Tanya Plibersek came in at the end of Labor’s press conference, after there were no questions on Jessica Whelan, the candidate Scott Morrison was referring to there, when he was talking about posts being referred to the AFP (she claims they are fake)
Plibersek:
Hunt and King have closed the press club debate on health, with Hunt finishing where he started, on medicine affordability.
Medicines can only be made affordable and health services expanded when the economy is strong, he says. Meanwhile, King closes by reiterating Labor’s $7.5bn package to improve hospitals and cancer care, and by saying Labor will stop cuts to Medicare.
Continue reading...
Guardian World News
Shorten pledges billions for seniors’ dental bills, childcare and educators’ wage rise
Labor leader vows to ‘build Medicare’ as Scott Morrison announces plan to freeze refugee intake
Bill Shorten has unveiled three big-spending policies to invest $2.4bn in seniors’ dental care, $4bn to provide cheaper childcare for families and to boost early childhood educators’ pay by 20%.
Shorten made the promises that Labor will “build Medicare” and expand social services to win the 2019 election on a positive platform of “hope over fear, vision over cynicism” at a quasi campaign launch at the Box Hill Town Hall in Melbourne on Sunday.
Continue reading...
Bill Shorten pledges $2.3bn cancer care package in Labor budget reply – video
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, delivered his budget reply at Canberra’s Parliament House on Thursday. He characterised the cancer package as ‘the most important investment in Medicare since Bob Hawke created it’
Continue reading...
Bill Shorten’s budget 2019 reply speech: Labor makes party’s case for government – as it happened
Labor leader gives party’s reply to the federal budget as seats tighten before Australian election campaign
That is it for the evening folks.
It has been a big week and many thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Mike Bowers for his sterling pitchers, as well as the brains trust: Katharine Murphy and Paul Karp. Amy Remeikis is a trooper, I have just surfed in for the night.
Some quick analytical thoughts on Bill Shorten's de-facto campaign launch tonight. Direct appeals to the base, to women and young people. Many connection points, from tax relief for workers who haven't got wage rises, the return of lost penalty rates, to the cancer package.
The cancer pledge connects with so many people, speaks to their lived experience. It will make disillusioned voters sit up and take notice. It was unclear until tonight how Labor would recalibrate on Medicare. Now we have a sense of how that services campaign will be structured.
Shorten was confident tonight, as was the team sitting behind him. Labor is selling a team to voters, not a presidential leader. It's also framing a positive campaign, in the process projecting itself as the incumbents, daring the government to go negative.
Continue reading...
Coalition gives budget boost to aged care and Medicare services before election
Morrison government to fund additional 10,000 packages to help older people remain at home rather than enter aged care homes
• Federal budget 2019: follow the speech and reaction, live
• Morrison splashes the cash in final election sell to the suburbs
• Comment: Morrison breaks with past budgets to save his skinScott Morrison’s government has made a pitch for the votes of families and older Australians with new spending in aged care and a promise to make Medicare more affordable and services more accessible.
The centrepiece of the spending in aged care is an additional 10,000 home care packages to help older people remain at home rather than enter aged care facilities, taking the number of packages to 40,000.
Continue reading...
Coalition says Labor climate policy ‘a Trojan horse for a carbon tax’ – politics live
Labor abandons Kyoto credits and highlights vehicle emissions in climate policy, as budget and election loom. All the day’s events, live
The Parliamentary Budget Office has released a report on the cost of Australia’s aging population.
It makes for dire reading. Part of the overview is below, but in short
In real dollar terms, this equates to an annual cost to the budget of around $36 billion by 2028–29. This is larger than the projected cost of Medicare in that same year.”
And it ends.
Main takeaways?
Continue reading...
From victory to vengeance: Trump scents blood in 2020 fight
The president celebrated the Mueller report – but then his latest effort to invalidate Obamacare left some feeling he ‘stepped all over that message’
It felt like a victory lap. At a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday night, surrounded by a sea of red Make America Great Again hats, a defiant Donald Trump held the podium before a raucous crowd.
Related: Trump Fed pick was held in contempt for failing to pay ex-wife over $300,000
Continue reading...
Trump’s push to repeal Obamacare prompts Republican turmoil – live
- Key Republicans believe Trump’s plans make no sense
- President says FBI and DoJ to review Jussie Smollett case
- Go beyond the headlines: sign up to our US morning briefing
“I’ll take the usual please, Donald”:
The Fake News Media is going Crazy! They are suffering a major “breakdown,” have ZERO credibility or respect, & must be thinking about going legit. I have learned to live with Fake News, which has never been more corrupt than it is right now. Someday, I will tell you the secret!
Mexico is doing NOTHING to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to our Country. They are all talk and no action. Likewise, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have taken our money for years, and do Nothing. The Dems don’t care, such BAD laws. May close the Southern Border!
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the day’s political news.
•Republicans are said to be in turmoil over the Donald Trump’s push for Obamacare to be dismantled in the courts. Vice-president Mike Pence and new attorney general Bill Barr are among the skeptics, according to the New York Times, with concerns that scrapping the Affordable Care Act could be a boon for Democrats in 2020. On Wednesday House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reportedly told his colleagues that Trump’s push made no sense. McCarthy is holding his weekly press conference at 11.30am, and may elaborate.
Continue reading...
Judge blocks work requirements for Medicaid in Arkansas and Kentucky
Judge strikes blow to Trump administration, citing unresolved obstacles to getting healthcare in the states
A federal judge has ruled that Medicaid work requirements undermine the program’s mission of providing healthcare for the needy, dealing a blow to the Trump administration.
The US district judge James E Boasberg in Washington DC blocked work requirements for low-income people in two states, Arkansas and Kentucky, on Wednesday. He found that the states’ requirements pose numerous obstacles to getting healthcare that have gone unresolved by federal and state officials.
Continue reading...
Cost of x-rays and ultrasounds to drop under Coalition pledge to increase Medicare rebates
All ultrasound and diagnostic radiology services to be cheaper under plan
Patients who need x-rays and ultrasounds will end up paying less under a new Morrison government pledge to reduce out-of-pocket expenses for the services.
The health minister, Greg Hunt, announced on Sunday the government would expand indexation of Medicare payments to all ultrasound and diagnostic radiology services over three years from 1 July 2020 – for the first time in 20 years.
Continue reading...